mat cutter

[connealy]

I'm pretty happy with my new mat cutter, a Logan 450.  I bought a good Epson R2400 printer some time ago, but haven't done much with it until now.  Recently, I resolved to do more prints, and to mat and frame them.  I thought I might get by with one of the little hand cutters, but it didn't take me long to decide that I would waste a lot of mat board that way trying to get things straight.



 . . The new unit was purchased for $160, shipping included, from dickblick.com. It took me one mat board to figure out how to use it.  The included dvd tutorial was a useful introduction to the process.    Getting my frames and boards from a large local craft store keeps the cost per picture low enough so that I feel comfortable putting up four or five prints on the wall just for my own enjoyment.  It's also very nice to not have to negotiate the process through a frame shop.



My first series of five for the wall were a combination of pinhole and box camera shots.

[sandeha]

Nicely done.  That's something for the future.

[connealy]

I think it is important to do prints and hang them up where you can look at them.  They are vastly more interesting than what can be put on a monitor.  My plan at present is to shoot less and print more.

[sandeha]

I'm currently contact printing some LF negs for much the same reason.  But I'm getting ahead of myself - the walls aren't finished yet.

[connealy]

My cyanotypes are contact prints, though the negatives are enlarged via inkjet printing to 4x5 or 4x6.  Wall space is limited in my place, partly due to the fact that the outer walls are adobe and not good for driving nails.
  . . I'm also looking for some other possibilities for displaying prints.  I've put together some small albums of some of my favorites.  Also thinking about doing some boxed sets.

[OpenWater]

Thanks for the information!

[jtzordon]

Mike are you scanning your negatives?  What sizes are you useing?  I'm considering this as well and would love to hear more.

[connealy]

My medium format negatives get scanned on an old Epson 2450 flatbed.  For the cyanotypes, I printed an image size of around 4x6 onto Pictorico transparency film.  I used a curve profile which I downloaded from alternativephotography.com.  Contact prints were made from the transparency negatives onto watercolor paper.  I mounted the series of smallish images in 11x14 frames with generous borders.

[Graham Serretta]

Now why don't you live next door to me?  You could go into business.